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The tempo of Holocene climatic change in the eastern Mediterranean region: new high-resolution crater-lake sediment data from central Turkey

Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK; enroberts{at}plymouth.ac.uk

J. M. Reed

Department of Geography, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

M. J. Leng

NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK

C. Kuzucuolu

UMR 8591, CNRS et Univ. Paris 1, Place A.Briand, 92195 Meudotn, Cedex, France

M. Fontugne

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France

J. Bertaux

IRD, 70-74 Route d'Aulnay, 93140 Bondy, France

H. Woldring

S. Bottema

Department of Archaeology, State University of Groningen, Netherlands

S. Black

Postgraduate Institute of Sedimentology, Reading University, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK

E. Hunt

Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK

M. Karabiyikolu

MTA, Department of Geological Studies, 06520 Ankara, Turkey

This study presents results from a multi-proxy analysis of cores taken in a crater-lake sequence from Eski Acigöl in centr-al Turkey which cover the period from pre-c. 16000 cal. yr BP to the present. The sediments comprise an upper unit of enerally non-laminated, banded to massive silts and peats of mid- to late-Holocene age, overlying a laminated unit of late-Pleistocene to early/mid-Holocenie age. The laminae, comprising mainly aragonite. amorphous silica (diatom frustules) and organic matter were formed in a relatively deep, dilute. meromictic lake. Pollen data indicate an abrupt replacement of Arteyisia-chenopod steppe by grass-oak-terebinth parkland during the period of laminae deposition, marking the start of the Holocene. A gradual increase in tree pollen during the early Holocene came to an end c. 6500 cal. yr BP (U-series and adjusted ¹⁴C timescale), when mesic deciduots taxa declined at the same time as lake levels fell. Human impact on regional vegetation is inferred from a sharp decline in oak around 4500-4000 cal. yr BP. Diatom, isotopic and mineralogical data indicate that during the second half of the Holocene the lake became relatively shallow and oscillated between fresh and brackish/evaporated water conditions. The contrast between wetter early and drier late-Holocene climatic conditions is matched by other eastern and central Mediterranean proxy climate data. While the Eski Acigöl sequence resembles Holocene hydroclimatic changes in the Saharo-Arabian zone and was also apparenitly linlked to orbital forcing, it is unlikely to have had the samlle direct cause, i.e., an expansion and subsequent retreat of monsoon rainfall.

Key Words: Isotopes • diatoms • pollen • cratei lake • mineralogy • ydiothennalism • Meditern-anean • Turkey • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 11, No. 6, 721-736 (2001)
DOI: 10.1191/09596830195744


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